In a run up to Government of India’s effort to promote and uphold the use of World Wide Web for enhancing the efficiency and transparency of Government Mechanism and encouraging its speedy transition towards Digital India, National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the ambit of India Portal (http://india.gov.in) organized the third edition of Web Ratna Awards. The award ceremony was held on 25th March 2015 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Hon’ble Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad graced the occasion and presented the awards to the distinguished winners. Senior officials from Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and NIC were also present at the ceremony.

E-Governance initiatives of Government Ministries and Departments across India were evaluated under various categories. Three awards Platinum, Gold and Silver were presented in each category to the winners shortlisted from the nominations received under each category. The categories included Citizen Centric Service, Open Data Champion, Outstanding Content, Innovative Use of Technology, Comprehensive Web Presence –Ministry and Comprehensive Web Presence-State/UT. Open Data Champion is a new addition to the awards. It honors Ministries/Departments who have contributed datasets to India’s Open Government Data (OGD) Platform (data.gov.in).

In the Citizen Centric Service Category Platinum Award was bagged by Passport Seva Project, followed by National Safai Karmchari Finance Development Corporation and National Institute of Open Schooling winning the Gold and Silver award respectively. In the newly instituted Open Data Champion category Platinum Award was won by Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner. The Planning Commission and Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation won the Gold Award. The Silver award was bagged by the Ministry of Water Resources.

For Innovative Use of Technology, MKisan-Government of India Portal for Farmer Centric Services won the Platinum Award. Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Department and Department of Commercial Tax, Tamil Nadu won the Gold Awards. The Silver Award was won by E-Sahakar, an online Cooperative Society Process Management System of Maharashtra Government. In the Outstanding Content Category Platinum Award was bagged by Ministry of External Affairs, followed by Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Kerala Tourism and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region winning the Gold and Silver award respectively

For Innovative Use of Technology, MKisan-Government of India Portal for Farmer Centric Services won the Platinum Award. Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Department and Department of Commercial Tax, Tamil Nadu won the Gold Awards. The Silver Award was won by E-Sahakar, an online Cooperative Society Process Management System of Maharashtra Government.

Comprehensive Web Presence- Ministry, the Platinum was bagged by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Golf by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Silver by Controller General of Accounts. For Comprehensive Web Presence -State category the Platinum award has been won by Maharashtra followed by Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand in the Gold and Silver section respectively.

Web Ratna Awards since its inception has played a major role in recognizing the noteworthy and sustainable initiatives in the realm of e-Governance for better delivery of information and services. At the same time Web Ratna Awards have reestablished itself as an important platform to disseminate information about such path breaking initiatives, encouraging others to customize and replicate the successful solutions. Web Ratna Awards through its unique initiative has contributed to the overall increase in quality and quantity of web presence of various government departments across the country. Most importantly, it has created an atmosphere for further innovation in the web based services sphere promoting and encouraging Government Departments/Ministries and States to come out with their best. The video of the event can be accessed at http://webcast.gov.in/webratna/.